According to the Bridgeport Library, one of the strangest and most famous UFO legends in American history actually has roots right here in Connecticut.
Long before the Men in Black movies turned the idea into a comedy franchise, the original story reportedly started in Bridgeport with a local UFO enthusiast named Albert K. Bender.
Back in the early 1950s, Bender was one of the first people in the country to seriously investigate UFO sightings. He even created one of the earliest UFO research organizations, the International Flying Saucer Bureau, which operated out of Bridgeport and attracted members from all over the world who were fascinated by the possibility of extraterrestrial visitors.
Then things reportedly got weird.
In 1953, Bender suddenly shut down the organization without much explanation. Not long after, he claimed he had been visited by mysterious men dressed entirely in black suits who warned him to stop researching UFOs. According to Bender, the strange visitors delivered a very clear message: drop the subject immediately.
Read More: Danbury Man Shares His UFO Eyewitness Story and Photos
Whether you believe that story or not, it became the foundation for what we now know as the Men in Black legend. Over the decades, countless UFO researchers have told stories about shadowy government agents showing up after sightings, supposedly trying to silence witnesses.
Now, I’ll admit something here—I’m a huge UFO nerd. Stories like this are my jam. And the fact that one of the most famous UFO conspiracy legends may have started in Connecticut makes it even better.
Think about it: while everyone associates the Men in Black with Hollywood now, one of the earliest versions of that story might have begun in Bridgeport more than 70 years ago.
Not bad for a state most people only talk about because of pizza.
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Leon Davidson of White Plains, NY, had a résumé packed with top-level science work — from IBM and Union Carbide to atomic research and sci-fi writing. But when he turned his focus to UFOs, what followed was a strange paper trail that linked him to the CIA, classified communications, and government efforts to shut him down. The story you’re about to see reveals what those efforts looked like — and why they may have gone to such great lengths.
Gallery Credit: Lou Milano
CT Got on the UFO Map in 1987 When 200 People Reported Something Strange in the Sky
In the 1980’s, New York’s Hudson Valley was a magnet for UFOs. I should rephrase for the non-believers, the Hudson Valley was home to thousands of reports of unidentified flying objects. This trend wasn’t just taking place in New York, Connecticut also had it’s fair share of incidents with the most notable coming in 1987. What you’re about to read really happened here in CT and it terrified hundreds of people who were left wondering what they had seen.
Gallery Credit: Lou Milano
The Forgotten Connecticut Inventions That Changed America
Connecticut has invented a lot more than submarines and insurance paperwork. The everyday stuff — the things you eat, toss, crank, or stash in a drawer — often traces right back to the Nutmeg State. Here’s a look at some fun, surprising, and downright essential items that were born in Connecticut.
Gallery Credit: Lou Milano
Visual Guide of Mark Twain’s Redding + Hartford , CT Homes and Years
Mark Twain lived in CT for nearly 20 years, he owned homes in Hartford and Redding. Twain even purchased a second Redding home for his daughter. During his CT years he wrote classics like; “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer”, “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” and “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.”
Each week on the Ethan and Lou Radio Show we are joined in the studio by Mike Allen for a segment we call: “The Place You Live.” Mike brings his research findings with him and shares another amazing local story, this week, it was all about Mark Twain’s ties to the Constitution State. This is a visual guide of Mark Twain’s footprint on Connecticut.
Gallery Credit: Lou Milano
In 1970, Two Men Robbed a Danbury Bank + Blew Up the Police Station
The story of the Pardue brothers, their connection to Danbury and what happened in the Hat City in February of 1970 came to us from Mike Allen. Every Tuesday Mike joins the Ethan and Lou Show on I-95 for a feature called “The Place You Live” and this week it was a local story unlike any I’d ever heard.
John Pardue was a 27-year-old man in 1970 who lived in Danbury, his brother James was 23, and living in Lusby, MD. Before the story finds its way to the Hat City, and the brothers rob the Union Savings Bank on Main Street, they had already racked up quite the list of astonishing crimes.
Prior to Danbury, they robbed banks in Lewisboro, NY, Georgetown, CT and Union, MO. They also killed their father, their grandmother, two other men who helped them pull off the robbery in Georgetown, CT and had, at minimum, a role in the death of an innocent Bridgeport man that they stole a car from. John and James Pardue were hardened criminals before their Danbury bank robbery.
Gallery Credit: Lou Milano